TASK FORCE TARGETS DRUG USE AT DERIDDER HIGH

DERIDDER - Beauregard Parish lawmen on Wednesday began the process of
arresting 11 DeRidder High School students on drug charges.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, three students had been arrested and booked into
the Beauregard Parish Jail, said Robert L. McCullough Jr.,
Beauregard/DeRidder Nar-cotics Task Force spokesman.

Arrest warrants for 11 students - ages 14 to 17 - were issued late Tuesday,
McCul-lough said. He said task force agents began contacting the students'
parents to bring them to be arrested on the warrants.

Of the 11 students, nine are juveniles, meaning their names will not be
released because of their ages. Two are adults, meaning once they are
arrested their names and addresses will be released, McCullough said.

Eight students will be charged with possession of Ambien - a controlled
dangerous substance - and three will be charged with distribution of the drug.

One of the 17-year-olds will be charged with one count each of possession
and distribution of Ambien, and another will be charged with possession.
Their bonds are $6,000 and $3,000.

McCullough said he expects all the arrests to be made by Friday. The
juveniles, once booked, will be released to their parents.

McCullough said one of the 11 juveniles to be arrested is the teen-age girl
who was involved in a classroom sex case last month that resulted in the
arrests of two students - Alvin D. Jones, 18, Cedar Street, and Harles
Smart III, 17, of Tanglewood Loop.

Jones and Smart, both 11-graders, were charged with felony carnal knowledge
of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile. They remain free on
$5,000 bond each.

The sex case was investigated by the DeRidder Police Department and has
been turned over to the Beauregard Parish District Attorney's Office for
review.

The girl told police that a male student had given her "some pills" and
that the taking of the pills contributed or caused her to engage in sexual
conduct.

McCullough said Jones and Smart are not involved in the drug activities.

DeRidder Police Chief Arvin Malone said test results from the girl did not
indicate that drugs were in her system. But, he said, the tests were done
three days after the girl reported taking the pills.

McCullough said the girl told narcotics agents that she got the pills from
a male student on March 14, but did not take them until March 15, the day
the sex incident in the classroom occurred.

The drug case also began on March 15 when task force agents received a call
from the school reporting that three students had been taken to Beauregard
Memorial Hospital after they had taken a drug brought to school by a fellow
student.

McCullough said that it was reported to agents that two students suspected
of distributing the drug were in the school's office.

He said agents seized 27 tablets from a student who is suspected of having
taken the drugs to school.

The pills were sent to the crime lab in Lake Charles for analysis.

McCullough said the lab results identified the tablets as Ambien, a sleep
agent that is a controlled dangerous substance.

He said it's believed that the student got the pills from his mother, who
had a prescription for them.

The student is also believed to have taken drugs to school on at least one
other occasion, McCullough said.